Remember when I posted about Africa last week? And encouraged you to come back on December 1st to see what Mocha Club is doing?
Barrett from Mocha Club sent me this yesterday:
When I think of Africa, the following images immediately come to mind: Starvation. AIDS. Child soldiers. Genocide. Sex slaves. Orphans. From there, my thoughts naturally turn to how I can help, how I can make a difference. “I am needed here,†I think. “They have so little, and I have so much.†It’s true, there are great tragedies playing out in Africa everyday. There is often a level of suffering here that is unimaginable until you have seen it, and even then it is difficult to believe. But what is even harder is reconciling the challenges that many Africans face with the joy I see in the people. It’s a joy that comes from somewhere I cannot fathom, not within the framework that has been my life to this day. [read more]
And this video – ohmylands. It says so much about Africa that my feeble little words cannot. It also echoes a conversation my sister and I had this past weekend about the tendency to always be looking for “the next thing” – and the vast emptiness of that approach to life.
So to see how you can make a difference in Africa, just click right here:
awesome, I have a ton of these video’s from Africa, my adopted Parents are missionary’s to Uganda my living room motif is African since they alway’s bring me back African art and statues. I am really wanting to go with them in June if it works out. My photograpy will no, no bounds there…. Africa has always been my heart.
Thank you Sophie.
I think I’m going to steal this video and link to you later today. THis goes right along with a verse I read yesterday that has stayed with me. It also goes with how I feel about the materialism of this season. Our joy SHOULDN’T come from our circumstances – it should come from the GIVER OF JOY!
I don’t know why I just thought of this – I’ve been following your Africa trip & stories since the beginning. One of my favorite bands is Paul Colman Trio. Unfortunately they’re not still together, but I do so enjoy the music they made. One of their songs is called “Africa” – I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. Probably you have, but if not I thought I’d point you towards it, because it’s a great song. Here’s some of the lyrics:
“Africa
I came to change you but instead you changed me
And I confess I came to frame you in a photograph
But you showed me why
And you turned this heart around
And I see your smile how it can be
So much brighter than me
And your silent eyes they scream
Of hunger and meaning and eternal dreaming
Africa”
You can listen to the song here: http://www.last.fm/music/Paul+Colman+Trio/_/Africa Click over on the right to play the song.
Anyway, just thought I would share with you because the song makes me cry every time I hear it, and I’m NOT a crying sort of person! :-)
Thank you for sharing this, Sophie!
I have a niece that left a couple of weeks ago to work in an orphanage outside of Nairobi, Kenya….so thanks for the link to this video. Africa is already in her blood..she definitely had a calling for this mission field. Blessings.
Thanks for sharing this, Sophie… I was in Rwanda in 2005 and was absolutely floored by the love and joy in the people there — I wasn’t prepared for that!
It makes me wonder if we are blessed or if we are cursed.
I suppose we are blessed with material things, but these things have blinded us, almost smothered us to other, more important blessings.
I need Africa WAY more than it needs me.
Thank you. For posting this. It was odd for me to click into the video and hear my friend Katie’s song playing. (Her music is amazing. I have a link to her on my page.) And that just made the tears fall even more. I have this deep ache in my heart for other countries where possession is lacking, but joy abounds. For continents where material wealth is not known, but the abundance comes in the heart. As a worship leader I look out over congregations and see the sad faces, the half hearted clapping… when I’m leading a more “free” group there may even be jumping and whooping. But that is rare. Then I look at Africa. I see people singing from the bottom of their lungs, all the way to the sky… jumping because they can’t help it… laughing because joy just spills out. My parents have gone and given and seen. My sister has gone and given and seen. Someday I will go. I will give. I will see. Because I do need Africa more than it needs me. As I lead worship every weekend I know that we, as a materially blessed people with unhealthy hearts, need Africa so much more than we know. So much more than it needs us. My heart aches. But, someday we will all be jumping together and singing from the bottom of our lungs… and we’ll already be in the sky.
Thank you.
wow . . . i need africa more than africa needs me . . . thanks
thanks so much for posting this, sophie!
To read about a young, female missionary teaching HIV/AIDS awareness in Nigeria, visit Mare at “It Might be Hope. She’s pretty awesome…
Wow, Sophie…I’m hearing “Twilight Zone” music right now; I just posted @ Africa this morning myself:
http://pensieve.typepad.com/pensieve/2008/12/zimbabwe.html
And now I see YOUR post (& links I’ll follow) and I’m just stunned.
God is amazing.